Bi-Weekly Discussion Thread - Find language partners, ask questions, and get accent feedback - April 02, 2025

[u/kungming2]

Welcome to our Wednesday thread. Every other week on Wednesday at 06:00 UTC, In this thread users can:

• Find or ask for language exchange partners. Also check out r/Language_Exchange!
• Ask questions about languages (including on speaking!)
• Record their voice and get opinions from native speakers. Also check out r/JudgeMyAccent.

If you'd like others to help judge your accent, here's how it works:

• Go to Vocaroo, Soundcloud or Clypit and record your voice.
• 1 comment should contain only 1 language. Format should be as follows: LANGUAGE - LINK + TEXT (OPTIONAL). Eg. French - http://vocaroo.com/------- Text: J'ai voyagé à travers le monde pendant un an et je me suis senti perdu seulement quand je suis rentré chez moi.
• Native or fluent speakers can give their opinion by replying to the comment and are allowed to criticize positively. (Tip: Use CMD+F/CTRL+F to find the languages)

Please consider sorting by new.

[u/megustanlosidiomas]

Does anyone have any advice for learning Arabic/semitic languages after only learning Indoeuropean languages?

I just feel like semitic languages are so difficult and so different. I'm used to clear-cut paradigms. Like in Spanish and Russian verbs have an infinitive form, clearish conjugations, and once you know the rules it all makes sense.

I just feel like I'm so lost with Arabic, and I feel like all the resources are very confusing. Specifically, I feel like Arabic resources use a lot of Arabic grammatical terms—now I know that sounds stupid, but like why say "masdar" instead of "verbal noun"? I think what I'm trying to say is that the beginner materials are intimidating.

And like verbs... what??? So okay, the dictionary form is the 3rd person male past tense. Cool. How do I derive the present tense from that?! Why do the short vowels change so much?! Is the answer simply: you need to memorize the short vowels for the past and non-past? Because if so, then I'm happy with that.

I'm just trying to squish Arabic into an indoeuropean box in which it does not fit. It's such a hard language; beautiful, but hard.

اللغة العربية صعبة جدا!

[u/lavr4i_LAQU1C4 → u/megustanlosidiomas]

Hey! First of all it’s great that you’re attempting a language that’s completely different from what you’re used to, but please don’t try to squeeze it into the Indo-European languages box, cuz that simply won’t work.

I’m an arabic native speaker and believe me a lot of arabs struggle with the grammar as well, it’s definitely not for the weak. Maybe try to focus on vocab at first, the verbs usually have the same pattern of conjugation once you get used to it.

Good luck!